Distractions

If there's one thing that I'm very talented at, it's distracting myself from doing important things.

See, I figure it's something like doing the dishes.  They're already crusty with let's-try-not-to-imagine-what so if I attack them right off the bat and start scrubbing, I'll probably end up getting more of an arm work out than I intended and also waste an entire bottle of dish soap and possibly start swearing a little (also sweating).  So instead (naturally) I fill the sink with a tasteful amount of dish soup, add dishes, and wait*.  It's a very successful recipe, I've found.

Similarly, when I have an idea to start writing on, I usually let it soak in my mind for a little while I assemble just the right playlist to listen to and briefly scroll through Facebook and then wonder why I bother because it's all pretty dumb.  But back to the playlist part.  I'm a little obsessed with music.  Just, you know, a tad and a couple days worth of songs on I-tunes and then twice that in my Spotify playlists.

It really does make sense.  Music is, in one way or another, the** spoken equivalent of writing.  It is a way of conveying ideas and emotion and making completely unconnected listeners/readers feel and experience something.  That something might not be exactly what the author/composer was intending to convey, but that's not even vaguely a bad thing, because the something might be what the person needed to hear or wanted to hear or has been trying to say to themselves but never was able to find the words until now.  If that isn't magical, I don't know what is.

Sidenote: I'm feeling really passionate about books right now because I just read "Fahrenheit 451" for the first time (my high school education was sadly lacking, apparently) and read it in 24 hours no less and now feel like memorizing all my favorite books so that I can help the resistance and thwart the government when it starts burning those same books.

*By "wait" I mean, go do other important things.  I'm most certainly not standing at the kitchen sink watching those dishes soak.  Protip: a watched kettle never boils!

**Okay, definitely not "the" as in "the one and only."  The inner actress in me wouldn't shut up after I wrote that paragraph and insisted that I clarify: theater is definitely another spoken equivalent capable of producing emotions and ideas in an audience.  But that's really a post for another day.

Reading Break part II (Breaking Reading part II? *cackle* *snort* ... Never mind.)

Can we ever have enough books?  Or posts about books?

Nope.

Thus: part II!

(A lot of these have 2013 release dates, so they'll probably be moved to my summer reading list.  But let's not quibble over details.)  (Quibble.  Quibble.  Quibble.  Quibble.  Melikes that word.)

Whafa.  A nightmare?  As a main character?  I must read this!  Please, please, please though, I beg you, please.  No love triangle.  No steamy, unrealistic, eye-rolling, fake romantic dialog.  Please.  Because "Eli" is described in the blurb as "hot," and I'm worried.  Don't be that kind of hot, Eli.  The world is asking.

Things that sound interesting: mist-shrouded castle, telepathic golden rats, bringing back the sun, ghosts and misfits.  Things that sound slightly overused: flaming red hair, main character "not who she thinks she is," and an ancient prophecy.  Weigh it out on the scales... eh.  The cover looks cool.  *cackle*  I do judge by the cover. #I'msoevil

Medieval world of forgotten magic.  The chessboard of the gods.  The spider queen.  An evil puppeteer.  An intriguing cover.  (Okay, you're probably tired of that.  I'll stop.)  Tempted?  Just a wee little bit /sarcasm.

It's about a bounty hunter.  'Nuff said.

*squee*  THE COVER!  LOOK AT THE COVER!  Okay, so I've never been a big fan of werewolves, but LOOK AT THE COVER.  Is that the Eiffel Tower?!  I think that's the Eiffel Tower!  And a full moon!  AND THE RIPS OH MY GOSH THE RIPS LIKE TEETH!  Well, actually, probably claws.  But "The Night has Claws" doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

I think this is my only middle-grade fiction that I've listed.  I'm such a hypocrite.  Anyhow, three brilliant kids are on a mission!  At least, that's what the blurb said, so I'm not sure who the fourth bloke is.  They probably just stuck him on the cover because they needed someone to hold the flashlight and everyone else was busy.  That's my theory.

Any books you're looking forward to reading?

Reading Break

I have a lot of things that I want to do over break.

A) Sleep in.

B) Take naps.

C) Intend to go to bed early, but end up staying up late out with friends or watching The Office in my basement.

D) Earn money.

E) See friends.

F) READ MY EYES OUT.

This post is mostly concerned with F.  OH ALL THE BOOKS I COULD READ.

The possibilities...

I'm getting dizzy.

Top on my library reserved list and my Goodreads to read list are:

Le drool.  I.  Can't.  Wait.  This sounds so amazing and it's Maggie Stiefvater and I adored The Scorpio Races and and and and....

Lauren Oliver + middle grade fiction = YES.  I can't wait!  Liesl and Po was adorable, Before I Fall was tremendously well written (for a slightly older audience), and I'm in great anticipation of the finale to her YA trilogy.  More Lauren Oliver?  I say yes.

I've heard mixed reviews (courtesy of Goodreads) about this, but the cover is so gorgeous (erm, not that I'm judging based on that or anything) and it's about assassins and the premise sounds awesome.  A runaway pirate bride, pairing up with an assassin, and a life-altering curse.  Methinks yes.

Mirror twins, castaway children, a prince and his double...  Dude.  And I think it was self-published.  At least on the Goodreads page, it said it was published through CreateSpace.  Also all of the websites I tried to click on had been deleted, which makes me think that it was originally self published, but then bought out by a bigger company that is in the process of making "real" websites.  But those are just my ramblings...

This gorgeous book supposedly contains puppet masters, orphans, London, rivals, inheritance...  Not to mention a very cool cover.  (Okay, yeah, I just like good covers and let's all admit that judging books by their covers is sort of part of the marketing business.  It's legal and everything.)

Four kids decide to stop the school bully by kidnapping him.  Of course, things go wrong.  That's pretty much all I know, but it has black birds on it.  Four of them.  Sort of like The Raven Boys (Ye-ah!).  And on that note, now that we've (sort of) come full circle, I think we'll end.  I like neat little circle stories.  So visually pleasing.